Alrighty I have 2 questions:
1. Which human rights are collective rights? I know self-determination is one, but I don't know which other ones are. Aren't all human rights mentioned in the syllabus collective, like Labour Rights and Education..? What determines the ones that fall into this category?
Hey Sophie! You're asking two questions that I struggled with during the HSC so hopefully I can articulate them to you the way that I learnt how to remember them. For the first question, there is no clear cut answer. In terms of Legal HSC - Collective rights are Environmental Rights, Self Determination and the Right to Peace. But any of these can be disputed, I know because I've studied them beyond HSC. The difference is that collective rights belong to a GROUP/COMMUNITY. The right to education belongs to each individual - every individual has a right to be educated. You could of course say, every individual has a right to a clean environment. The difference is, that environmental rights also apply to the future generations. So the debate around this right is that current generations are taking a right away from future generations that they are collectively entitled to - if we are destroying the environment. It also has a lot to do with the way the right was developed. In Africa, Environmental Rights have been discussed quite officially, or at least a lot more than in Australia. Collective rights are easier to define and carve out when the group it applies to is very specific, but as the group grows, so does the debate over it's title as a "collective" right. If we reaaallly look into it, the idea of collective rights as being a distinction to individual rights is a bit of a contradiction, because a collection of people is made up by a number of individuals, so I totally see why you find it difficult to make the distinction.
This Quora thread provides some good ideas, but it may complicate the idea for you more. Essentially what I'm saying is, in the HSC sense - the right to environment, self determination and right to peace are collective (although some textbooks say peace is more a human right, I have been told by students). But, in a real life sense, the idea of collective rights is debatable, but the HSC only aims to introduce you to the notion, rather than get you to debate it. Self Determination, to me, is the clearest example of a collective right. The group it relates to is so specifically laid out - it was created for Indigenous groups. So, it belongs to a cultural population/demographic, rather than individuals who happen to be grouped. To me, this is the clearest cut example, but hopefully you can see there is some contradiction!
2. For the last Theme and Challenge "Effectiveness of legal and non-legal measures", would things like Auditor General reports, Attorney General reports, surveys or the ALRC "Seen and Heard" report be considered non-legal measures..? For example, the ALRC "Seen and Heard" report is particularly effective as it facilitated law reform of the Bail Act 1978 (NSW) to the Bail Act 2013 (NSW) where it criticised previous amendments made to the initial statute as undermining the presumption of bail for young offenders.
Again, I struggled with this too. I say, yes they are non-legal measures. Although the position of the Attorney General is legislated, and it is legislated that we must have a Human Rights Commission, it doesn't mean that the
actions of these are legal measures. So the report is not a legal measure, although it was produced by a body that is legally mandated - because the report doesn't make law automatically. In order for the report's findings to be turned into law reform, it needs to go through the legislative body of government (legal measure). I always found it to be unclear, and I specifically remember asking Jamon and my friend's older brother for help with this during my HSC. A body can be legislated, but it doesn't mean that their actions are legal measures. The police force is legislated, and their actions are often legal measures. But it isn't the same with the Attorney General, not all of his actions are legal measures, so to say.
Hopefully this clears things up a bit! These are two things I struggled with so hopefully you're following the way I've explained it all...